Halloween

I've never been a huge Halloween fan. Maybe it was because of the tacky decorations or Christian culture's semi-ban of Halloween. You know how that goes...one year it's okay to celebrate, the next it's evil, and the next you are too cool to care. And I've never really been into dressing up, but when I do dress up I get all stressed because the costume must be ultra creative and outside of the box.

For example, my first year at grad school at Trinity Western, my classmates had a "Harvest Party" and we were to come dressed as farmers, harvesters, etc. Of course Aaron and I, being Aaron and I, decided that was too boring. We didn't want to be like everyone else, so we donned our Hawaiian Shirts and leis and went to the party as Banana Harvesters, toting Hawaiian Punch to share with our new friends. Well needless to say, we spent all night explaining that, yes, we did understand the instructions, and "no, we're Banana HARVESTERS, get it?!?" They certainly were not amused as we were.

Then there was the year when we were invited to a costume party and about 30 minutes before the party we were scrambling for costume ideas. Aaron had his old Starbucks apron, so I threw on a black shirt and pants and the apron and went as...no, not a barista, but a college graduate. And then Aaron found our Obama pin (the costume party was a few days before the elections) and decided he would go as a socialist, mocking all of the media commentary about Obama being a socialist. Again, we spent the evening explaining our "costumes" and on our way home realized that again, they were not as amused as we were.

This year, however, Halloween has been fun, almost magical even. Maybe it was my friend who LOVES Halloween. Maybe it was Montana being in preschool and needing a costume, maybe it was carving pumpkins once a week for the last 2 or 3 weeks. Maybe it was all of the parties this weekend. I don't know, but it was fun. I even dressed up and I didn't try to over think it, I just tried to get as close to a princess (per Montana's request and plea) as a pregnant woman can get. We dressed up last night AND this afternoon. Today we took Montana to Fairhaven with some friends where most businesses were passing out candy and there were so many people dressed up. It was an event. Then we came back to co-housing and trick or treated with the neighbor kids. Montana was in HEAVEN. She and another girl kept shouting "I LOVE Halloween". Who can blame them? You get to dress up and run around with your friends collecting candy.

So here's to many more Halloweens. I'm letting go of past negative feelings towards Halloween and embracing the day. It may still take awhile for me to embrace the tacky decorations, but bring on the pumpkins, parties, and costumes!! I have a feeling the next few years will be a lot of fun. So Happy Halloween Everyone!!